<link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/</link>
<atom:link href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/index.rss" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
+ <item>
+ <title>Lets make hardware dongles easier to use in Debian</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Wed, 9 Jan 2013 15:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
+ <description><p>One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
+general, is that there is a great package management system with the
+ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them
+from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically
+install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my
+machine. Even if the package to use it is easily available from the
+Linux distribution. When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could
+suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages
+I need to talk to it. When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the
+yubikey-personalization package. The information required to do this
+is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.</p>
+
+<p>Many years ago, I proposed to
+<a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg01206.html">use
+the discover subsystem to implement this</a>. The idea is fairly
+simple:
+
+<ul>
+
+<li>Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program
+ starting when a user log in.</li>
+
+<li>Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new
+ hardware is inserted into the computer.</li>
+
+<li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a
+ database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed
+ packages.</li>
+
+<li>Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered
+ package, and make it easy to install it.</li>
+
+</ul>
+
+<p>I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my
+initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the
+discover database to find packages and
+<a href="http://www.packagekit.org/">PackageKit</a> to install
+packages.</p>
+
+<p>Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the
+draft package is now checked into
+<a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
+Debian Edu subversion repository</a>. In the process, I updated the
+<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html">discover-data</a>
+package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to
+the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version
+2.2013.01.09 to unstable. I also discovered that the current
+<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html">discover</a>
+package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because
+/proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present. I ported it to use
+libusb as a fall back option to get it working. The fixed package
+version 2.1.2-6 is now in experimental (didn't upload it to unstable
+because of the freeze).</p>
+
+<p>With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this
+desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
+inserted):</p>
+
+<p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-09-hw-autoinstall.png"></p>
+
+<p>For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
+install the proposed packages by pressing the "Please install
+program(s)" button should to be implemented.</p>
+
+<p>If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it
+happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings
+from hardware to Debian packages. Check if 'discover-pkginstall -l'
+list the package you would like to have installed when a given
+hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using
+reportbug if it isn't. Or, if you know of a better way to provide
+such mapping, please let me know.</p>
+
+<p>This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that
+should be considered before it is ready for production use. Is dbus
+the correct way to detect new hardware? At the moment I look for HAL
+dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see
+on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop. Are there better events to use?
+How should the user be notified? Is the desktop notification
+mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a
+popup instead? How should packages be installed? When should they
+not be installed?</p>
+
+<p>If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian,
+please send me an email. :)</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
<item>
<title>New IRC channel for LEGO designers using Debian</title>
<link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html</link>
</description>
</item>
- <item>
- <title>Lenker for 2012-11-28</title>
- <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenker_for_2012_11_28.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenker_for_2012_11_28.html</guid>
- <pubDate>Wed, 28 Nov 2012 21:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
- <description><p>Mye interessant har skjedd de siste ukene. Her er noen dokumenter
-jeg har hatt glede av å lese.</p>
-
-<p><ul>
-
-<li><a href="http://www.digi.no/906843/kan-du-hjelpe-piratpartiet">-
-Kan du hjelpe Piratpartiet?</a> - Piratpartiet mangler 600
-borgersignaturer for å kunne stille til stortingsvalg neste år. Jeg
-har samlet 20 signaturer. Har du gjort ditt?</li>
-
-<li><a href="http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Who_is_harmed_by_a_%22Real_Names%22_policy%3F">Who
-is harmed by a "Real Names" policy?</a> - en fin oversikt over hvem
-som blir skadelidende når nett-tjenester og aviser innfører krav om
-"ekte navn" for å delta.</li>
-
-<li><a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/kronikker/Kan-vi-stole-pa-alle-i-politiet-7056453.html">Kan
-vi stole på alle i politiet?</a> - Advokat Sigurd J. Klomsæt skriver
-litt om hvor merkelig det er å bli anklaget for å ha lekket
-informasjon fra et politi som åpenbart lekker selv.</li>
-
-<li><a href="http://www.digi.no/906576/opphavsretten-maa-vekk">-
-Opphavsretten må vekk</a> - En av stifterne til
-<a href="http://www.eff.org/">EFF</a> besøkte Oslo i forrige uke, og
-ble i den forbindelsen intervjuet av Digi.
-
-<li><a href="http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article261391.ece">Sparer
-100 millioner kroner med Linux</a> - München har beregnet hvor mye de
-har spart på sin overgang til Linux.</li>
-
-<li><a href="http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article259803.ece">Oslo
-Børs kjøres nå på Linux</a> - Børsen gikk nylig over fra .NET-basert
-løsning til Linux-basert løsning, for å få et system med akseptabel
-kvalitet.</li>
-
-<li><a href="http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article261219.ece">It-milliardær
-vil bygge Mars-koloni</a> - inspirerende for oss som savner en
-selvforsynt koloni på Mars.</li>
-
-</ul></p>
-</description>
- </item>
-
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